Happy New Year

I hate you, Harry. I really hate you.

And the Father of the Year Award Goes to...

...my husband!

On Thursday Andrew came down with some sort of stomach virus. He was up a few times in the night getting sick, but on Friday he was pretty much healed. We kept him on bland foods Friday but by yesterday he was back to normal.

And we were hoping that this was a fluke...maybe just something he ate...

Nope.

Yesterday afternoon, in one of the most insane parenting moments I've ever experienced, Ben, Cameron, Jonathan, and I ALL came down with it within an hour of each other. It was quite the scene, believe me.

David was heading home from Pittsboro, where he had gone to pick up some bunk beds we found on craigslist. I kept calling him with the body count. As soon as he got home, he went into full caregiver mode, fetching towels, buckets, blankets, and trying to make us all as comfortable as possible. It must have looked pretty bad when he came in...I was sharing the couch with Jonathan, and Ben and Cameron were sacked out on the floor here in the living room. Nobody was moving very much.

Andrew, meanwhile, was incredibly fed up with all of us because he felt fine and he didn't understand why no one would play with him.

Finally, things calmed down around bedtime enough to get everyone comfortably to bed. By that time, I was finally keeping down fluids.

Poor David went to bed exhausted (in the midst of this, he also carried in a heavy wooden bunk bed set and two twin mattresses!) with nothing to look forward to but getting sick himself.

So far, no sign of illness in him though. I am praying that he will be spared as a reward for his hard work yesterday!

Today we're healing. Vegging out, watching some football (congrats to the Patriots on their season!), and eating bland food. Cameron is coming back slower than the rest of us, I think because he didn't do as much throwing up as the rest of us yesterday. He's a control freak in that area of his life, too.

Merry Christmas

In Which We Wax Poetic About Obscure Christmas Music

(...an amusing note before I begin...when I was typing in "blogger," I typed "blooger" instead. Isn't that funny?! Oh, it's not? Nevermind.)

As I am working in the kitchen today, I have my CD player to keep me company. Today's choice is Peter, Paul, and Mary's A Holiday Celebration. I know, I know. But, like many of you, given my age, and the age of my parents, I grew up listening to Simon and Garfunkel, Peter, Paul, and Mary and John Denver and all the rest.

And truth be told, I still really enjoy this album. I brought it to college with me and got my roommate hooked on it. And now my kids are learning to love it. This afternoon Ben found our copy of Tomie DePaola's The Friendly Beasts and asked me to sing it with him. After I sang a little for him, I asked him if he'd like to hear it on a CD. So he sat at the table and paged through the story as Peter, Paul, and Mary sang the song. And then he asked to hear it again.

This is a live concert recording that the group did with the New York Choral Society and a full orchestra. The album has "The Friendly Beasts" and many other less well-known carols, like "The Cherry Tree Carol," "A Soalin',"and "I Wonder as I Wander." It also has a rousing version of "Children Go Where I Send Thee," and a song called "The Magi" that will make your hair stand on end, or if you happen to be driving, your foot will somehow become a bit heavier.

Sadly, I turn in my official "child of a flower child" (grand-flower-child? Flowergrandchild?) card when I skip #12...yup. Every P,P&M concert must end with "Blowin' in the Wind," and I usually push my friendly "skip" button...sorry.

Part of the reason why I love this album is that it's been in my life so long. When I hear it I see visions of my Dad rolling his eyes at the loud Christmas music that inevitably descended on the house on the day after Thanksgiving. I hear my friend Michelle belting out "HOW SHALL I SEND THEE?!!". And I can see my college roommate Michaelanne doing her best "Mary" cigarette voice, singing "I Wonder As I Wander."

Plus, it's just darn fun.

Other obscure albums that help us celebrate the holidays are Ray Charles' The Spirit of Christmas, Michael Card's The Promise, and A Very Special Christmas.

What are your favorite obscure Christmas music selections?

McAdenville Lights

It's been pretty quiet here on the blog lately, I know...we've had some colds going around, but mostly it's been Christmasy fun that's keeping me busy.

On Wednesday night, we drove to McAdenville -- check out their cute website here -- to take in the lights.

Now, because any family outing would not be complete without a twenty-minute boring diversion, David and I decided to turn the wrong way after exiting the highway and drive. And drive and drive and drive. And then we stopped for directions at a somewhat scary side-of-the-road place with not four but FIVE cats outside! And that made it very exciting for Mommy and the boys, who were stuck in the van while Daddy went inside to ask for directions and buy the requisite package of cookies to justify our annoying the clerk.

So then, we turned around and got headed in the right direction. Aaaah. Wait, is that it?! The clerk said, "you can't miss it." But we were a little gunshy for obvious reasons. Countless times we found ourselves squinting through the darkness, wondering if we were missing it.

But then, there it was: a line of slow-moving cars turning right and a little sign that said "Christmas Lights ---->". And so, feeling a little like cattle, we, too, turned right, switched off our headlights, and joined the slow-moving parade.

Here's a little of what we saw, but with the scope of it, it's hard to capture.






This made us laugh...a pickup truck DECORATED WITH LIGHTS. The back was full of kids.


We were waiting with eager anticipation to hear Jonathan's reaction, since for the first two weeks of December, everywhere we drove in the dark was greeted with a cheer of "MO-MORE MISSMASS!!!". But apparently by this time in his life, Christmas lights are old news, because he was remarkably silent. I finally turned around and said, "Jonathan, look at that!" when we saw this:






and he said enthusiastically, "THAT ALL MISSMASS!!!"

Which was enough for Daddy and me, thankyouverymuch.

And here is my favorite house, which apparently excited me so much that I started falling over while taking the picture:


The nice thing was that, for the portion of the ride during which my window was rolled down, every single person who walked by our van wished us a Merry Christmas.

Some Overdue Pictures

David's birthday was this past Saturday...


The shirt says "WPI"
(that's where D got his Master's in Mechanical Engineering)


NYC puzzle



Laughing at his Michael Scott birthday card




And then...the puzzle assembly began. It was finished by Sunday night.

Happy Birthday David! We are so thankful for you!

Good for You, Good for the World

Improve your mental dexterity and benefit the world's hungry population by playing Free Rice!

Gingerbread houses

Yesterday we went to our friends' home to decorate gingerbread houses.










A lot of eating happened, too.

Child of the Digital Age

Last night as I was tucking Ben into bed after the concert, I asked him what his favorite part was. He responded with, "11."

He meant, of course, number 11 on the CD, which is the culmination of the piece, where all the melodies from each number thus far overlap into a beautiful crescendo. But I had to laugh at the way he just knew it as a number.

A Highlight

For those of you who were unable to attend the "Behold the Lamb of God" concert with us last night, here's one of my favorite pieces, "Labor of Love," sung by the lovely Jill Phillips.



My favorite line:
But the baby in her womb/ He was the Maker of the moon/ He was the Author of the faith/ That could make the mountains move

This should successfully shatter any clean, dewy Christmas card images of a nice clean stable with the breath of animals keeping Mary and the baby warm. :-)

How NOT to get the rancid milk smell out of the van

1. Leave your milk container under your seat for about a week.
2. Every time you enter the van, complain about how bad it smells in the van.
3. One Wednesday morning, discover said abandoned milk container and shout gleefully.
4. Open container, and pour rancid milk on the floor of the van. Be sure there is enough so that the milk doesn't just soak the floormat, but also gets on the carpet as well.

BONUS POINTS if you do this on a day when it's approaching 80 degrees and you do it on the way to the mall, where your mom will have to leave the car locked for about an hour.

Have I said too much how much I love my steam cleaner?

Eight things

My husband's dear mother tagged me for this meme....

Eight Random Things You May Not Know About Me


1. I wear size 9 1/2 or 10 shoe. This is quite large for a woman, but as my mom's friend used to tell me, "at least [I] won't blow over easily in a windstorm."

2. I just picked up my knitting again, after a long time away.

3. The movie "E.T." scared me to death when I saw it for the first time, and I still hate it with a passion.

4. My favorite cities are Boston, New York, D.C., and San Francisco.

5. My closet is a mess.

6. I watched "White Christmas" with my husband last night. That's one of my favorite Christmas traditions. We have a running theory that the character of "Kramer" on Seinfeld was informed by Danny Kaye's performance in this movie. If anyone else says it, they stole it from us.

7. These ladies make me laugh out loud: Rocks in My Dryer, BooMama, BigMama, and The Queen B.


8. I'm going to "Behold the Lamb of God" TOMORROW NIGHT and I am SO excited!!!!!!

The Car Said, "what?!"

Recently I ran across some old episodes of "The Cosby Show" on YouTube. I've watched a couple with the kids.

Here's Ben's favorite: Denise Drives. He loves the car sound effects.
And Cameron's: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. He love the cymbals.

In Real Life

Last night was great! We went to the Macaroni Grill for dinner, and then swiftly moved out to the movie theater, where we took in a showing of "Dan in Real Life." We both LOVED IT! It was a sweet, funny movie about family, parenthood, and love...not to mention the beautiful scenery (it was shot on the coast of Rhode Island, at this amazing huge oceanside house with a wraparound porch...you know, the kind that sends me into a fit of sinful covetousness). It was also surprisingly clean...which is refreshing!!

Now Hear This

Listen up, everybody.

I AM GOING ON A DATE WITH MY HUSBAND TONIGHT.

A real date: Dinner, and maybe a movie (thanks to two giftcards we have hoarded for this occasion).

And you can't stop us. Well, unless you're our babysitters calling to back out on us.

OK, you can go back to what you were doing now.

Last Night...

Hot chocolate for the children. Wine for the grownups. Piano carols on the stereo. And I ask myself, why has the Lord blessed me so?

Waiting for their turn


Careful...careful...


Jonathan could really help this year


So precise


Lots of help for Daddy


"My turn? My turn?"

Drudgery is the Touchstone of Character

Walking on the water is easy to impulsive pluck, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is a different thing. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he followed Him afar off on the land. We do not need the grace of God to stand crises, human nature and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes.

Oswald Chambers

I hope I figured it out...

I knew Andrew was allergic to something in those drops...but now I think I figured it out.

SULFA! The full name of the drops is Polymyxin B Sulfate and Trimethoprim. Sulfate = Sulfa, right?

I am allergic to Sulfa, also...and I break out in hives when I have it.

So now we know our poor dear third child inherited a sulfa allergy from his mom and a penecillin allergy from his dad!!

Moms, please check your medicine cabinets for Benedryl, and make sure it's not expired. It's a drug you should not be without.

****UPDATE...my pediatrician said there's no sulfa in these drops. I am becoming a big fan of second opinions, so I called the pharmacist. He said that if a child is allergic to sulfa, then they could have a similar reaction to this drug.

Oh my goodness...Christmas Sweaters...

This is why I was laughing out loud on the couch while my husband was wandering around unplugging the Christmas lights tonight. Read the comments on that post.

(yes, there are a few unladylike words there. I didn't say them.)

Bored?

Come to our house!

This past week the kids have been passing around pinkeye. Ben and Cameron have both beat it, but Andrew was having a harder time kicking it, so I became worried about possible bacterial infection. Last night I decided to take him to the minute clinic and have him looked at.

In the middle of this decision-making process, David was in the den playing with Jonathan, throwing him up in the air. As Jonathan landed one time, his hand came down in unfortunate proximity to David's eye and he scratched David's cornea. He yelps and heads to the bathroom, hand over his eye. We noticed some bleeding, so now it looks like David has pinkeye even though he doesn't. He was just beat up by a two year old who is approximately one-quarter his size. Apply the ice...sit down...

So after dinner, I'm heading out the door with a child with green goo running out of his right eye, leaving behind three children with a father who is walking around squinting because it hurts to open his left eye.

Sigh. On to the minute clinic. The nurse there was very sweet and prescribed an antibiotic drop for Andrew....and gave him two stickers for being such a good patient. She was very sympathetic, saying, "oh, you poor thing!" many times and laughing about how serious Andrew was (he becomes very stoic in doctor's offices).

I gave Andrew one drop (the correct dosage) in his infected eye last night before bed. By this time he is an old pro at receiving eyedrops and he calmly allowed me to do it.

At three A.M. I jumped awake, startled by a bright light in my eye and heavy breathing in my ear. Andrew had turned on the hall light and stumbled down the hallway and was crying about his head hurting. I gave him some ibuprofen and put him back to bed. (This morning at breakfast he was mocking me for looking so shocked when awakened out of a sound sleep, so at least his sense of humor is still intact.)

This morning I gave him another dosage of the eyedrops, and noticed a little red dot on his cheek. Since he is an excema-prone child with sensitive skin anyway, I blew it off.

You can see where this is going, right?

Another dose of eyedrops before nap. When he gets up from his nap, he has a full-blown case of hives going. His arms, legs, and torso are covered. Fortunately I am prepared for this, since he is also allergic to penecillin and does the same thing when he has that...or, better said, he did the same thing the one time he had that. Break out the Benedryl, the hydrocortisone cream, and put in a call to the doctor. By the time they call me back, I've already done everything they advised me to do.

No more eyedrops for him. His eyes are almost clear today, so I am willing to ride it out and see if his body can right itself.

Meanwhile, Cameron has impacted wax in his ears, which is making it hard for him to hear anything. He can be sitting next to me and I'll speak to him and he won't hear me. So we're putting olive oil in his ears every night. The oil softens the wax and allows it to drain naturally. We had to do this before, when he was around three years old. But until that drainage happens, I have to SPEAK VERY LOUDLY AND CLEARLY to him.

I'm feeling a bit kooky at this point. So if you're feeling bored, come on over!

Ponder...

with me some mysteries of a Friday night mall visit.....

Why is there no Williams-Sonoma at the Northlake Mall? Is it because that snooty little kitchen store is up on the second floor? (I say "snooty" because the employees were unkind to us when they saw our four children. The four children were far better behaved than the employees. They touched nothing.)

Why have I never gone into Anthropologie until now? What did I think was going on there?

Why is it that every time I walk by that handcream kiosk, a man has stopped for the sales pitch?

Why are there SO many makeup counters in department stores? It's enough to make me dizzy and a little sick.

And Because I still love to do it...

today we're making paper snowflakes

Something's missing

A little over a month shy of his seventh birthday, Cameron finally lost his first tooth. It was loose for a good long time...he was so afraid of what might happen....would it hurt? Would it bleed? But finally last Sunday morning at Bruegger's he got so annoyed with not being able to eat his bagel that he just pulled it out. That's my boy!

I found it!

I found the camera cord.

You'll never guess where it was. In the camera bag. The one that I had searched about twenty times. Mm-hmm.

So here are the promised Thanksgiving pictures:

Me with my arm in a turkey. I fear nothing.

Look at those disgusting hands.

Tom, Albert, Grace and Nathan. (Sarah is in the foreground, facing away from the camera)

Shawnda getting Samuel seated.

...and there it is. The World's Greatest Sandwich. Pre-grill and hold the cheese.